United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 62 times, with nine victories and fifteen second place finishes they are recognised as the contest most successful nation. They first participated in the second contest in 1957. The UK has entered every year since 1959, and has won the contest a total of five times. The UK is the country with Eurovision victories in five different decades. The United Kingdom is one of the "Big 5", along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain who are automatically allowed to participate in the final as they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Up to and including 1998, the UK had only twice finished outside the top 10, in 1978 (11th) and 1987 (13th), with their seven winners being Sandie Shaw with the song "Puppet on a String" in 1967, Lulu with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" in 1969 (tied), Brotherhood of Man with "Save Your Kisses for Me" in 1976, Bucks Fizz with "Making Your Mind Up" in 1981, Katrina and the Waves with "Love, Shine a Light" in 1997 and James Harrison with "Hallelujah" in 2016, "Your Demand" in 2017, "Save Yourself" in 2018 and "Countdown" in 2019. In addition, the UK has finished as runner-up on a record 15 occasions; including Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson (1959), Matt Monro (1964), Kathy Kirby (1965), Cliff Richard (1968), Mary Hopkin (1970), The New Seekers (1972), Scott Fitzgerald (1988), Michael Ball (1992), Sonia (1993) and Imaani (1998). Throughout the 21st century the United's Kingdom's success dwindled in the early years only reached the top ten twice in 2002 and 2009, until four consecutive victories between 2016 and 2019 rekindled their success. The British public broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event each year and organises the selection process for the entry. In all cases (prior to 2011), a televised national final has selected the British Eurovision entry, varying between both a selection of performer and song, or just a song selection with an internal selection for the artist being held. For most years, the public had been able to vote for the winner, using in the past postcard voting, where the viewers sent postcards with their vote to the BBC, but more recently televoting. In 2009 and 2010, a new national selection format was held to find the singer who would go on to sing the internally selected song at the contest. From 2011 to 2015, for the first time in UK's Eurovision history, the entry was selected internally by the BBC. This resulted in the national selection process being suspended; however, this returned in 2016. The United Kingdom has finished last in three contests. Jemini's infamous 2003 "nul points" result was the first time that the country had come last in the contest, something that was then repeated in 2008 with Andy Abraham, who received 14 points and in 2010 with Josh Dubovie, who received 10 points. In 2016, the UK won their first contest in 19 years with James Harrison picking up a then record 605 points. Contestants Voting History Hostings AP Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards OGAE